Sirens
by KissesforSeungri
Summary: AU. The gang is part of the Special Victims unit of the L.A.P.D. Tori Vega is a new member of the team. Promoted from Narcotics and Jade's new partner. Can the two work together to solve all the crimes in their city?
1. Chapter 1

Ch.1

Falling. Three stories. Five, six, seven until... splat! With a sickening thud, she crashes onto a car below her, her neck and ribs, cracking. She's alive for only a couple of minutes and soon everything fades to black as she listens to the car alarm go off.

* * *

She lay in bed, remembering a friend. She rubbed at her red eyes and tried to fall back asleep, but she couldn't.

"_Don't say goodbye."_

"_But you're leaving me. What should I say?"_

"_Say... see you soon."_

The conversation echoed in her head until she was lulled asleep by the memories and the sound of a car alarm going off in the distance.

* * *

Detective Jade West marched into the lobby of the LAPD precinct with a scowl on her face. As much as she had tried to make herself feel better last night, she still felt horrible. Danny was gone. Transferred to Narcotics. The many horrible things they'd seen finally broke him and he decided three days ago that his time at Sex Crimes was up.

"We missed your ugly mug last night," Detective Andre Harris said when he saw her cruise into the room.

"I was sick."

"Yeah, real sick."

"Sick in love," Robbie Shapiro, another detective added, laughing. He stopped when Jade gave him one of her signature death glares.

"Robbie, shut up."

Andre suddenly felt for his friend. "Yeah, Robbie, shut up." He lightly whacked, the now confused Robbie on the head with a folder.

"But-but!"

Jade walked over to the coffee pot and poured some into a Styrofoam cup for herself. She brought it to her lips and took a sip before spitting it back into the cup.

"Augh! Who made this coffee?"

"I did," said an unfamiliar voice.

She whipped her head around to see a tan woman, probably Hispanic, standing at Beck's old desk. She had a bubbly smile on her pretty face and her brown eyes glowed with excitement.

Who the fuck is ever excited to be at work on a Monday?

The girl frowned. "Do you not like it?"

"It tastes like shit," Jade spat, tossing the cup and its entire contents into the nearby bin.

"HI everyone!"

Jade cringed at the annoyingly chipper voice of the detective who had just walked in. That's right. Cat was happy to be at work everyday. On a normal day, Jade wouldn't be bothered by Cat. In fact she was like a small puppy that she took care of and annoyed her on occasion, but today, she just wasn't having it.

"Cat, can you keep it down? It's still early."

"Oh. I'm sorry," the red head spoke in a loud whisper. "Do you feel better today, Jade?"

"Yeah," she put on a fake half smile. "Sure. So what happened while I was gone? You managed to handle even with my disappearance, right?"

"There was a murder on 81st street," the mysterious Latina replied. "The victim was thrown out of her apartment window and fell five stories before landing on a car on the street below. We were called when they found out she had no underwear."

Jade narrowed her eyes. "And who, exactly, are you?"

"Jade!" Sikowitz, said, slapping her on the back. "Good to see you've made a fast recovery. This is Detective Tori Vega." The way he emphasized the detective title and the way this so called "Tori" was smiling, made her connect all the dots.

"Wait, you don't mean...?"

"Yup, Tori's your new partner. And you can get to know her when you work this case. I'm making you two the lead investigators for this one."

Jade felt like throwing up. Sure, Danny quit SVU three days ago, but he'd only been gone for one. The department couldn't just replace him like that. And with a rookie no less. She turned to her new "partner and stared her down until that big smile of hers faded uncomfortably.

"Should we go to the crime scene now?" She asked, trying to alleviate the obvious tension.

"Yeah," Jade answered, slowly. "Let's do that." She turned to face the rest of the squad. "What was the victim's name?"

"Monica Winters," Andre answered, feeling a little uneasy as well.

"Have you alerted her family?"

"We haven't found them yet."

"Well, you take Cat and go and do that. Robbie, I heard you were in court today for the Ferris case?"

"Uh, yeah. I should probably get to that now."

The detectives cleared the room and Jade turned back to Tori.

"Well, Vega? What're you waiting for?"

"So were you sick or something?"

"Or something?'

"What was it?"

Jade didn't answer, but that the didn't stop the other girl from continuing to talk.

"I once got the flu when I was assigned to work on a drug bust back when I was in Narcotics. It was awful, but you know what helped? Honey. It's weird I know. Have you ever tried any natural remedies."

"Do you ever stop talking?" Jade snapped.

Tori was about to say something, but decided against it and walked silently with Jade to the parking lot.

"We're taking my car, so I drive."

"I-"

"Is this going to be a problem?" Jade asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, not at all."

The drive was quiet. Too quiet and it was eating at Tori, she finally decided to open her mouth.

"Can I drive on the way back?"

"Do you even have a license?"

"Come on Jade, You're not that much older than I am.

Jade stopped the car in moving traffic. "It's Detective West," she said, not facing her."

Tori didn't know whether to be grateful or scared. She decided on grateful because if she had seen the look on Jade's face, she would have probably peed her pants.

* * *

CSU was already going over the entire apartment when Jade and Tori arrived. It wasn't a very big place, but it did have a lot of light thanks to the giant whole in the window. Jade and Tori slapped on gloves and looked for a few clues themselves. After a bit of digging, Tori spoke up.

"Found something."

"What is it?"

"An address book."

Jade flipped through it. Inside were the names of everyone Monica knew and the names of all their possible suspects.

"Did I do good?" Tori asked.

"Yeah," she said.

Tori beamed.

"Alright, alright. Keep looking."

The address book, it seemed, was the only thing they were going to get out of the crime scene.

Jade decided to check Monica's messages.

"Hello, this is Monica. Please leave a message."

"_You have no new messages._"

This woman was dead. It had been at least eighteen hours and no one was calling to find out where she was. She had the address book full of names and not even one call. Jade tried to imagine what that would be like. To disappear and then have no one care about what happened. She pushed the button again

"Hello, this is Monica. Please leave a message."

"You have no new..."

"Come on," she said to Tori.

"What're we doing now?"

"Asking questions." And with that, they walked down the stairs and out of the apartment.

* * *

"Well, I heard some loud noises and then the crunch of something falling hard," said a chubby, brown haired woman in her forties to Tori. "It was when the car alarms went off that I knew something was up."

"And you didn't look out of your window?"

The woman snorted. "Yeah, so he could see me and kill me too."

Tori sighed. She and Jade had been questioning for a while and so far no one had anything. Jade. She hated her. Tori knew. At first she was excited to have this job. She'd been wanting the promotion for months, but how can you work efficiently when you "partner" can't stand to hear your voice or the sight of you?

"Excuse me, Detective?"

Tori turned to face a couple holding their dry cleaning while the other woman walked away.

"Yes?"

"Are you all still investigating the scene where that woman died?" the man asked.

"Why? Do you know something?"

"Uh, no," the woman answered this time. "We're on the list for her apartment. We were just wondering how long it would take for us to get the place."

Tori was shocked at how blunt these people were at unconcern for the loss of a human life. All they cared about was getting her apartment?

She felt a body, brush past her. Jade.

"Were you two looking to rent this place?" she asked the couple.

They nodded, smiling hopefully.

"Hi, I'm the real estate agent." She pulled out a note pad and crossed something off. "Yeah, you're off the list."

The two walked back to Jade's car, leaving the couple on the sidewalk with their mouths hanging open.

* * *

Andre and Cat were back at the precinct before Jade and Tori.

"What do you got?" Jade asked as she walked in.

"Nothing," Andre sighed.

"Our victim had nobody," Cat pouted. "Isn't that just sad."

"I know, what an awful way to die." She walked over to the coffee pot, before remembering and grabbing a red stirring stick to fidget with.

"That's fresh pot," Tori said, but Jade ignored her.

"We found this at the crime scene." She took out the brown leather address book and tossed it at Andre. "Maybe we'll find someone in there who wants her."

Tori yawned, suddenly aware at how late it was.

"It's getting late," she said.

Everyone looked up at her. Jade's hands hovered over the phone on her desk.

"Maybe in Narcotics you left when the day was done, but in here, we stay as long as it takes."

Tori swallowed, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.

"But, you can go if you want." With that, she turned her back on Tori and made the call.

Andre stood up. "I'll walk you to your car."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Good morning, everyone," Tori said to the detectives near her.

They looked at Tori for a second, before focusing back on their work.

"Really? You're all going to ignore me too?"

Cat looked up, but hesitated. "We can't talk to you because Jade doesn't like you. We don't talk to anyone Jade doesn't like."

"It's best this way," Robbie added. "You've seen how she can get."

Tori turned back to face her desk, sadly.

"Good morning to you too," said a voice. It was Andre. He rolled his chair over to Tori's desk. "I'm not that afraid of Jade."

Tori grinned. "Thanks. At least one person here likes me."

"Hey, don't worry about it. You're new. The others will come around soon. And Jade... Well that could take a while. You kind of replaced her best friend."

"It wasn't my fault! Why'd he leave her anyway if they were such close friends?"

Andre hesitated. "This job isn't for everyone. He'd seen too many things."

"How long had he been here?"

"Eight years."

Tori swallowed. She hadn't even been on the force for eight years. She was starting to think she should have waited in Narcotics until she was ready.

Jade blew into the door, bringing a wave of confidence that seemed to follow wherever she went with her. She headed for the coffee pot before remembering what happened yesterday.

"I didn't make it today," Tori said.

With that, Jade poured herself a nice cup. She raised her eyebrows at Andre and he wheeled back to his desk.

Captain Sikowitz came in from his office with what looked like coconuts milk. Weird.

"Ah, Tori!" he said. "Did you rest well?"

She looked down. "Yes."

"Sinjin in the morgue called. They need room."

"Well, it's gonna be hard to get someone to take her when we can't find any trace of a family," Andre said.

"I might be able to help with that." Jade looked proud. "A friend of mine at the Post ran a few columns of Monica's. He might know something about her."

"And I found the name of Monica's therapists in her address book," Robbie said. "Cat and I'll go over there now."

"Great work people." Sikowitz clapped his hands.

"Come on, Vega. We're about to go do something you might have heard of. It's called investigate."

This would be the last time Tori ever went home early.

* * *

Robbie knocked on the door to the office of Dr. David Walden. A bearded man in an old sweater came to the door.

"I don't really do walk ins," he said immediately. "Especially not couples, besides I'm expecting a patient-"

"We're not a couple," Cat said.

"And you're patient isn't going to be coming in today, Dr. Walden." Robbie flashed his badge.

"What do you mean?"

"She's dead."

"We've been unable to locate a boyfriend, next of kin, or friend of Monica's" Cat said. "We're hoping you could help us with that."

"You know I can't do that."

"Yeah, doctor-patient blah, blah, blah. This lady was murdered!"

"With all due respect, Doctor, wouldn't you want the family of Ms. Winters to get her back? We could always get a court order, but this is much faster, don't you think?"

The doctor sat down in a big, ancient armchair.

"Well, Monica's parents are dead. She has a sister named Ellen Travis out in the Denver area."

"Fiancé, boyfriend?" Robbie prodded.

"Not that she mentioned. She liked her privacy."

"Oh, but you knew everything about her," Cat said.

"Well, that's my job."

* * *

"I've called every name Dr. Walden gave up and voicemail, voicemail, voicemail. Every single one." Cat ate some more of her sushi.

"She was running," Andre said.

"From who? A violent ex?"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Robbie held up his hand. "The shrink said no exes."

"You saw him. He didn't want to cooperate."

"Maybe you should get a court order and make him cooperate," Andre offered.

The phone rang on Robbie's desk.

"Shapiro. Oh really? Huh. Thanks. Guess I was wrong."

"Why?" Cat asked.

"The lab lifted finger prints on the wine glass in Monica's apartment. Guess whose they were?"

"Our doctor."

"Bingo."

* * *

The next time the detectives visited Dr. Walden he had his brother and lawyer Edward Walden with him.

"Someone's not telling the truth here," Robbie said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Our lab lifted a print of yours at Monica's apartment."

"You're not suggesting-"

"My brother visited the home of Ms. Winters at her request."

"Anything else she request?" Cat fired. "Because we also got your prints on a condom.

"That's offensive."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Mr. Walden asked.

"Where was your brother when our victim was murdered?"

"I was at the house of a fellow doctor having dinner!" Dr. Walden said, pushing his brother's hand away.

"How long?"

"I got there around 6:30 and left at nine."

"This fellow doctor," Robbie asked. "She have a name?"

"Dr. Stahlberg. Dr. Maureen Stahlberg."

"Dr. Walden was at my house at around 6:30 until he left at nine."

* * *

Robbie and Cat followed an older red haired woman in a busy hospital. She moved too quickly and they both had to double their strides to keep up with her.

"You have any information on anyone else he might have been seeing?" Robbie asked

The doctor stopped. "We have a _professional_ relationship. I'm not concerned with his personal life, detectives. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go." She walked away, leaving Cat and Robbie with nothing to go anywhere with.

* * *

Tori followed Jade who followed a bald man with glasses around on the floor of the L.A. Post. It was almost as if she weren't even there neither of the two had bothered to look at her when they talked.

"Thanks for doing this, Eric."

"No problem, Jade it's always nice to see you." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Hey, is that your new partner?'

"Yeah, she's a rookie." She rose her voice. "It'd be a little better working with her if she could keep up."

Tori practically hopped over a mail cart to get to her partner. "It's not my fault! You guys are too fast!"

"Is that what you're gonna tell the captain when you lose a suspect in a chase?"

"No."

Jade turned back to Eric. "Our victim was Monica Winters." She handed him two photos of the victim on was a picture of her, bleeding on the hood of a car. She wrote a couple columns for you guys. You know anything that could help us?"

"Oh, no. I mean, I talked to her on the phone a couple times, but other than that, no. You know, she was kind of..."

"Kind of a what? Stone cold fox? A babe?"

Jade tried to hide her smile as Eric blushed.

"Uh, no. You two are the babes."

"Thanks," Tori laughed.

"No, no, this girl..." He blew out air. "She looks almost hollow. Like there's nothing inside."

* * *

"Well, that was a bust."

"It's fine," Jade said, suddenly feeling a little more light hearted. Well, about as lighthearted as you can feel when investigating a murder. Maybe Tori wasn't so bad after all. "Let's go get hotdogs."

"Really?"

There she goes again. "No, I'm joking, you idiot."

They found a close hotdog stand and Jade ordered one with ketchup and mustard. As she ate hers she looked at Tori.

"You'll buy me one?"

Jade nodded slowly.

"Uh, relish."

"Relish," she told the vendor.

Tori's phone rang and she took the call, writing something on her pad.

"A little more relish," Jade said.

"Thank you," Tori said, ending the call. "Her credit card shows a series of expensive dinners from last year. The last one was at Il Posto Vecchio for 372 dollars.

Jade raised her eyebrows and handed her the hotdog. "Let's go check it out."

* * *

"There are so many beautiful faces to remember at this restaurant," the maître d, an effeminate, balding man said as he walked the detectives through the restaurant.

"You mind telling us about a specific one?' Jade asked. She flashed her badge and held up a photo.

"She was with one of the anchors. Not local, so I guess national. Then again, they all look the same."

"I remember her," said one of the waitresses when she saw the picture. "She was with Andrew Gates. I remember because she tipped me good."

"She?" Jade asked.

"Yeah, I guess she was his boss. I love that whole Girl empowerment thing. I've got your job next, Jerry," she eyed the maître d before leaving.

"Let's go pay our friend, Gates, a little visit, huh?" Jade said as they walked out of the restaurant.


	3. Chapter 3

"Susie Gain," the tall, silver haired anchor said as he walked the detectives quickly through the upper level of the newsroom to his office. "Fine reporter, that woman. Her interview was riveting. I just came back from it now."

"Yes, but we're not here to ask you about Susie," Jade said right on his heels. "We're here about Monica Winters."

"Does she know Susie?" the anchor asked, feigning ignorance.

"No, but you do, according to a couple of witnesses you saw you with her at the restaurant, Il Postre Vecchio."

The anchor said nothing to the detectives. He bent his head at his stylist, already in the office. "Can you do something with this?"

"Mr. Gates," Jade said, becoming impatient.

The man sighed. "Yes."

"Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Do you know Monica Winters?"

The man sat in his chair. "Does anyone ever really know anybody?"

"Don't get philosophical with us. You're just a teleprompter jockey and we're just a couple of cops."

"I haven't seen her in over a month," he said after a while.

"Where were you Monday night at eight?" Tori asked.

"I was with my wife and some colleagues having dinner. There's a maitre d and several waitresses who saw me there." He proceeded to write the address of the restaurant down on a piece of stationary. "I trust that you'll be able to confirm this without calling her."

Jade took the paper and looked at him. "Yeah."

"So where do we go from here?" Tori asked when they got out of the studio.

"Back to the restaurant lists."

"Are you going home?"

Jade looked at her. She said nothing and hailed a cab. She didn't get in, but held the door open for Tori. "I am."

* * *

"Yeah I saw her," a bald and obviously gay waiter at the Black Pearl told the detectives. "A couple of weeks ago. She was having drinks with that gorgeous anchor man. What's his name? Garry? Gates? Whatever."

"Andrew Gates," Tori offered.

"Him." The waiter placed the drinks he was holding on a couple's table and turned back to the detectives. "She ain't look too happy, though."

"Yeah, now why's that?" Jade asked.

The man jerked his head back in a diva-ish way. "Women. Who knows? Definitely not me, honey. No, offense."

"Did it seem personal?" Tori asked.

"Well, she was all over him, crying and he looked like a rock, all still and looking around. I seen this scene way too many times."

"So you know what was happening?" Jade asked.

"Yeah."

There was a beat of silence.

"You mind sharing that with us?"

"You don't know?" He looked suspiciously at her. "He was gone, finito, done with her."

Tori giggled and Jade glared.

When they left Tori brought it back up.

"You've never read that body language before?"

"I'm glad you had a little laugh, and no."

"Come on, Jade. You're a cop. We read people for a living."

"Well, I try not to read too much into things," she said pointedly and Tori remembered the hotdog. "Just because you think something means one thing doesn't always mean that that's the way it is."

She walked ahead of her partner again and Tori sighed. Just when she thought she was getting somewhere with Jade, she got kicked two steps back.

* * *

They two went back to the office of Andrew Gates and he let them in.

"Yes, I was with her Monday night," he said, immediately. "When you told me she was dead, I was shocked."

Jade coughed. "Oh, really. You have a funny way of showing it."

"I'm at work, Detective. I very well can't show concern for my 'mistress', now can I? I have to keep up appearances. I was being discreet."

"Being discreet and lying to the police are two completely different things." Tori said.

"I was good to her. Before me she'd been with a bunch of lying psychos."

"Any of those psychos have a name?"

"Her therapist, for one."

Tori raised her eyebrows. Jade rolled her eyes.

"Why would she tell _you_ about that?"

"Like I said, I was good to her."

"Yeah, when you wanna get into somebody's pants."

"Make anymore remarks like that, Detective and I'll be calling my lawyer and this interview will be over."

"I have a better idea. Why don't _I_ call your lawyer and tell him you killed Monica Winters?"

"And just why would I have done that?"

"To keep her from telling your wife you were sleeping with her."

"I think you've said enough."

"I don't."

"Excuse me, for one second," Jade interrupted and grabbed Tori by the arm, leading her outside of the office. "We'll be back later, Mr. Gates. You take care, now."

"Take care?" Tori asked once they were out.

"Shut up. What the hell were you doing in there! If he stops cooperating we're nowhere!"

"We're always nowhere! Every lead we get goes cold! He's being a frustrating bastard!"

Jade grabbed Tori's face and looked into her eyes. "Listen to me. We don't have any leads, he's our last chance and I don't want you fucking this up. Sometimes you gotta play nice and keep your cool, understand?"

Tori nodded, terrified.

"Good." She let go of her partner, her face softening. "Now, I know he's an ass and you know he's an ass, but for the purposes of this investigation, he's the sweetest peach in the world."

"Okay," Tori said, quietly, rubbing her cheeks. "I'll wait outside. Maybe you should do this one without me."

"No, you need to have experiences like this in order to learn. I'm staying outside. You get back in there and get as much info as you can on from that guy."

"What?"

"Yes, Vega!"

"No, Jade-I mean Detective West, I can't do this."

"Of course you can," her partner said. She looked away from Tori and at the ground. "I, uh, I believe in you."

Tori raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"I'm not saying it again, so go!"

"Okay, okay!"

Tori held her breath and walked back into the room.

"Where's your partner," Andrew asked when he saw her alone. "The sensible one."

"I'm sorry for giving you a hard tine, Mr. Gates." She said, urging herself not to roll her eyes. "Your cooperation is very important to us and I was being difficult."

"It's fine," the man said, easing up. "I know how women can get. Especially around that time of the month."

Tori's eye twitched. Was this guy for real? "Yes, well, we're still looking for anything that might direct us to Monica's killer. You left off with the therapist?"

"Yeah... She told me that at first it was exhilarating, you know with him knowing all of her darkest secrets and whatever. I told her the whole thing was creepy and that she should sue."

"You wouldn't mind saying all of this in front of a grand jury, would you?"

"No, no, no, this whole interview is off the record."

"With all due respect, sir, this isn't a 60 minutes interview. It's a homicide investigation."

"Well, I guess it'll just be your word against mine and mine is trusted across the nation."

"What about at home, Andrew?" Tori could tell she struck a nerve. "How much is your word worth at home?"

* * *

"Well, Gates' alibi seems pretty good," Jade told Captain Sikowitz when they were back in the precinct. "He's a sleaze, but I don't think he's lying."

"We have the shrink's finger prints at the apartment," the captain said, sipping on some coconut milk. "I don't see why this guy isn't in custody yet. I'll get a DNA order on him, if I have to. But that body, though..."

"Still nobody?" Tori asked.

"You're telling me."

"Well, there is a sister in Denver, but all we know is her name."

"Why don't you take a look at all of her stuff and find out if she has anything that might be able to get us to her."

Hours later, the two were still surrounded by all of Monica's stuff.

"Penis quote's," Jade said, holding up a file. "'There's a tiny catfish feared more than the piranha. It's called a..."

"Candiru," Cat fills in.

"A what?" Robbie asked.

"It's a tiny catfish from the Amazon," Cat explains.

Jade continued. "The candiru's fearsome _and_ gruesome reputation, however, stems from its reputed habit of following the scent of urine and entering the urethra of an unsuspecting human victim. After entering the penis or vagina, the candiru heads "upstream" then secures itself in place with clusters of hook-like spines situated on its head. As the candiru feeds, its body expands causing excruciating pain. Surgery or amputation (for male victims) is required to remove the fish."

"What?" Robbie asked, clearly disturbed. "Is that real?!'

"Yeah, it happened to my-"

"Brother?" Jade asked.

"No, my brother's friend."

"I've got something," Tori said. "A poetry book that's been overdue for twenty years from Hollywood Arts High. I went there!"

"And now you're a cop," Jade smiled. Tori couldn't tell whether it was a friendly, teasing smile, or just a plain old teasing smile. Either way, she felt a little disappointed that things didn't go as planned."

"Oh, don't pout. Look on the bright side: you get to be stuck with me." She grabbed her jacket. "Come on, Vega. We'll take a trip down memory lane.


End file.
